Wednesday, 20 November 2013

St Oswalds Tongue - A Tale of Shedwood

As mentioned in my earlier post last Monday saw the first adventure in the Tales of Shedwood. This was very much a playtest of the rules and if I say so myself they went rather well. A few tweaks are required but we are getting there.

A big thank you to Matt (Robin Hood) and Mark (Guy of Guisbourne) for their support and advice.

I'll start with the scenario and as I work through the simplified AAR I'll drop in snippets from the rules...

The Small chapel of St
Oswald lies on the edge of Sherwood Forest, a days ride from Nottingham. It is
a famous pilgrimage in this part of the country as it is the resting place of
the old martyr known as St Oswald. Oswald was beatified when he single handedly
talked the marauding Viking war party to turn back from the evil ways and
embrace the spirit of God.

Immortalised in tales
and legend his tongue has become a powerful relic and is said to inspire
leadership and oratory.

It has long been known
that the Sheriff of Nottingham covets this relic and wishes to add this to his
collection. He has instructed his henchmen, Sir Guy de Guisbourne and Black
Hugo to recover the relic and bring back to Nottingham.

Fortunately for the
locals the Sheriffs intentions have not gone unnoticed and a message has been
sent to Robin Hood. Said Robin has decided such a theft should not take place
and has such determined to thwart the Sheriffs plans.

﻿

The Village and Monastery of St Oswalds

As can be seen in the above picturethe forces of the Sheriff of Nottingham lead by Guy are entering the table from the bottom right. They have to enter the monastery and sieze the relic. Once captured they must exit the board from their entry point.

Guy of Guisborne

Each player has a number of order tokens equal plus
one to the total number of units he is commanding. Guy was commanding seven units so therefore he received 8 tokens.

At the beginning of each turn the player then
places these tokens on his Battle Order Board (BOB). BOB is a grid with the
Unit forces described across the top and the order types listed down the side.

The unit will perform the listed action as and when
the player wishes.

Battle Order Board: The Commander writes in the name of the unit in the Top Boxes

In addition he receives an additional number of
tokens equal to his command rating. Once used these are then disposed of and
cannot play a further part in the game. These should be a different colour to
the standard tokens.

These command tokens can be used as follows:

1.As an additional order. Placed in the usual way.

2. Or used to modifier set of die rolls by +1/-1

Actions

Action

Move

The Unit may move up to its full distance – if it
closes within 1 inch of an enemy unit go to combat

Shoot

The unit if missile armed may shoot at any single
unit within range

Reload

If the unit is crossbow armed the unit may reload

Defensive Formation eg Shield Wall

The unit may form a defensive posture – thereby
receiving a +1 save in melee combat = the unit remains in this position until
it moves. Units defending cover may not receive this order.

Rally

The unit may attempt to improve it morale

Vigilance

Cost of two tokens – unit may perform any of the
above tasks in its sides turn

No unit may perform more than two actions in one
turn – these maybe the same actions

Order of play. The players roll a dice the highest
begins first by actioning one of his orders on the board. Once this has been
completed play switches to the next player and then back again. In multiple
player games the players on joined sides may agree the order they play.

The turn ends when all tokens are in play. Clearly
if one side has more tokens than the other he will play out the rest of his
turn once the tokens are spent.

﻿

Guy's Mounted retinue

Add caption

Guy started to move his troops through the village past the smithy and towards the monastery. The mounted unit leading the way.

The Village of St Oswalds Cross

The Smithy

Robin Hood meanwhile was leading his men through the Forest to the wood edge where ghe was hoping to ambush Guys forces ﻿﻿

The Merry Men enter from the Forest

Robin, as a leader, not only can fight but he can also lead his men into battle. He can also use his Luck and extra command tokens to affect the battle.

All of the commander have a score for Luck and
Treachery. These numbers denote the number of times that they can use these
skills in a battle.

These skills can be used to enact the following:

1.Cancel the play of a Leaders command token – the Leader may still place
another command token on the board after the luck treachery skill has been
played ie it helps to burn them up

2.Luck points may allow the player to:

a.Reroll all the dice of a given set (to see if his luck fares better)

b.Add +1 to any dice rolls before they
are made

3.Treachery points may allow the player to

a.force the opponent to reroll any hits
or saves that they have made in combat

b.Subtract -1 to any die rolls before
they are made

His merry men act as Knights - Little JOHN, Friar Tuck etc These guys can bolster the morale of an attached unit, add extra attacks etc.

﻿

Robin 'the Hood'

﻿

﻿

Little John & friends

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As the Sheriff's forces advanced Robin's men let fly with their longbows

﻿

Take Aim

﻿

Archery (and all missile fire) is quite simple and deadly

Missile Weapons have two ranges effective &
long – A missile requires a 4+ to hit at effective range and 5+ to hit at long
rage

Weapon type

Effective Range

Long Range

Armour Pen

Reload

Warbow

12

24

+1/0

No

Xbow

12

24

+1/+1

Yes

Shortbow/Slings

8

16

-1/-1

No

Other Missiles

6

12

0/-1

No

To Hit Modifiers

+1 if target mounted

-1 if light cover *includes large shields

-2 if hard cover * includes pavisses

Because they are so deadly - the Sheriffs forces just kept getting mown down we have since decided to reduce the ranges by 25% (now longbows have range of 9" and 18". I am also thinking that the to hit score will be modified to 5 at effective and 6+ at long range.

A duel opened up between the xbows and the archers. With their slower reloads the crossbows came croppers in both games.

﻿

Exiting the Village with crossbow men taking cover in the wattled garden

﻿

﻿

Crossbowmen taking cover in the vegetable garden

Meanwhile several horsemen had ridden up to the Monastery - they can be quite fast.

Depending upon how many tokens are on the unit (max of two) a cavalry unit could move 24" in one turn !

﻿

Outside the Monastery

﻿

The burst into the monastery to be confronted by a number of fanatical Templars intent on keeping the relic safe.

﻿

A violent encounter

﻿

Melee combat is driven by the type of unit (attacks and armour) and again is very simple.

The Unit will have the following characteristics

Calibre – the level of training = number of attacks
per stand

Armour – how much armour the unit has (will denote
movement speed)

Weaponry – Types of weapons inc missiles

Morale – How pumped up they are for battle

A Unit is designated by the number of troops –
typically units will be based in multiples of 6

Attacks

Defence

Unit Size

Points

Knights

3

4 *ignore mounted reduction

6 max

6

Men At Arms

2

5

6 (12 max)

4

Trained Band

1

6

6 (12 max)

2

Levy

½

6

6 (18 max)

1

+1 Attack if Mounted -

- the points score is still to be determined so please ignore this column.

Needless to say that the mounted men at arms did not fare well against the Templars and were sent back in retreat

﻿

Retreating from the Monastery

﻿

Elsewhere the Sheriffs forces advanced on Robins forces in the woods

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The Retinue Advance

﻿

Forward boys

﻿Although they managed to eventually reacjh the edge of the woods their morale was shot to pieces as were a number of stands.

In both games the relics stayed safe in the sanctuary of St Oswalds. ﻿

Learnings

1. The Warbows are just too powerful when used by lots of figures, by reducing the size of units (from eight to six) and reducing their hit potential (dice and range) we have created a more balanced effect. Initially I had given Robin and his key men two shots per phase this is now reduced to one but they get hit benefits.

2. Combat is brutal, simple and neat. Knights are the best unit in hand to hand as they should be with a degree of good protection.

3. The battleboards allow for fast play with orders effectively designated in advance.